Greetings from San Diego, faves and weekly workouts

Hi, my friends! How are you? I have to apologize for my absence on the blog the last few days, but I feel like I haven’t had a single moment to open the computer and catch up with you since I woke up on Wednesday morning.

It’s been go-go-go, and it’s been awesome, but I’ve missed you. Hopefully you’ve been following along on my Instagram stories, because I’ve been sharing a lot there while on the move. (All of my IDEA World stories are saved on my IG highlights too, so you can find them.)

I’m currently down in San Diego, staying on Coronado island with Dave, Brady and Rudy at Dave’s parents’ beautiful house. And the weather has been spectacular with the bluest skies every single day.

We arrived on Wednesday afternoon after a mostly seamless day of air travel with both a baby and a dog. (Well, seamless outside of forgetting a lunchbox full of frozen breastmilk in the car way out in the long-term parking lot, which Dave had to sprint to retrieve, while I went through security alone with both Rudy and Brady in order to make our flight. It was a trying 20 minutes, but nothing compared to a full day of travel alone with Brady.) 

Anywho, once we got here, I attended the IDEA World Fitness Convention and BlogFest with SweatPink on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and am all done with sessions now and switching into the vacation part of our trip.

Over the last three days, I saw some of my favorite fitness and blog friends who live all over the U.S., learned a ton and had a lot of fun too. I’m going to write a full run-down of the event for you soon to share the specifics and takeaways, but today, let’s cut to a belated and short-ish edition of favorites .

Food

Feeling whole at Cafe Gratitude

This is my hands-down food favorite, because I’ve always wanted to try San Diego’s Cafe Gratitude, which is a plant-based restaurant known for it’s positivity. For instance, all of the menu items have a name describing how it will make you feel. I chose the macrobiotic bowl, which makes you feel “whole.” It so did.

It had roasted yams, kale, kimchee, beans, almonds, seaweed, brown rice and all sorts of other things, and it was so darn delicious, warm and nourishing — just how I like my meals. (Warm food queen over here, thanks to my knowledge and love for the teachings of Eastern medicine.)

In addition to that, our server offered us a “conversation starter” question before our meal, which they typically provide to guests to discuss. Ours was “who do you need to forgive”? and it got us both thinking and chatting. I’m a bit of a grudge holder, and I know I need to be better about it. Anyone else?

Overall, although we were a tad rushed in Cafe Gratitude — due to the timing of my lunch-break on the last day of IDEA World sessions — we didn’t get to have dessert, but Cafe Gratitude lived up to the hype. It’s truly food for thought. Oh, and how cool were the floors?

Did I mention that the “we” I am referring to was Dave and me? Dave and Brady came to meet me for lunch on the last day of sessions, and it was so nice to see them and walk around downtown San Diego in the fresh air, before I finished up the afternoon.

Veggie salad from Burger Lounge

During the first day of IDEA World and BlogFest, I had multiple protein bars to get me through the morning, so was seriously craving veggies and real food for lunch. The girls and I walked over to Burger Lounge in the Gaslamp area, and this veggie salad with a quinoa burger added was absolutely delicious.

We sat outside while dining, and I ate every last bite. Sometimes, you just crave veggies, and perhaps that’s because it’s your body telling you it’s what you need.

Family

Brady is 9-months-old

You guys, Brady is officially 9-months-old as of this past weekend and has been outside in the world longer than I was pregnant. Our sweet little man is crawling, super chatty and still as happy as ever.

He has been such a trooper on this trip and has been sleeping great and enjoying play time all day with Dave and his grandparents, while I’ve been away at sessions.

They sent me pictures and updates all day, and it felt so good to know he was being well cared for, although I missed him so much.

And yes, I spent quite a bit of time with my pump during breaks between sessions, and that was not my favorite part of the conference. #MomLife

Friends

Girl time 

I feel like I do a decent job of having girl time in my life, especially with my weekly walk dates with friends and the occasional concert or brunch. Well, these last three days of IDEA World have been filled with girl time, and it’s so good for the soul. Sharing about mommyhood, fitness, food, our respective businesses and all of that has been awesome. I don’t go to blogging events very much anymore and none of my nearby friends are really in the industry, so it’s always nice to be able to talk about this strange thing that we do. And I have to send a special shout-out to Giselle and Gina, two of my long-time blog friends, who I was with all weekend, and a new friend, Tara, too.

We even showered up after the conference on Friday night and got dinner and drinks in the Gaslamp area of San Diego at Rustic Root, and it was so much fun. 

Fitness

Weekly workout recap at 37 weeks postpartum 

Now on to the fitness.

Since I’ve officially been postpartum the same amount of time I was pregnant (OMG), this will be the last time I call out in this section how many weeks postpartum I am. Sound good?

Here’s a look at my workouts from last week …

• Monday: 1-hour BODYPUMP class, 10 a.m.
• Tuesday: 30-minute BODYATTACK, 30-minute CXWORX classes, 9:30 a.m.
• Wednesday: 20-minute full-body weights workout, 11 a.m.
• Thursday: Taught 1-hour Bootybarre class, 12 p.m.
• Friday: 30-minute CXWORX class, 9:30 a.m.
• Saturday: Taught 1-hour Bootybarre class, 11 a.m.
• Sunday: 45-minute SoulCycle class, 6 p.m.

WOW, where’s the rest day? You know I am 100 percent an every week rest-day taker, and so let me explain myself: I’m planning to take a few days off this week and next during travel and the Fourth holiday, so I went ahead and let myself do that extra workout this past week. Not to mention, a couple of the days were really light (a less-than-30-minute workout on one day and just a core workout on another day). So don’t get worried about me, I’m not overdoing it. 🙂 (If you struggle with taking a rest day, here’s why you should and how to get into the habit of it.)

Other than that, this past week recapped above was light on heavier weights and much more focused on barre, cardio and core work, which is not my goal nor ideal week, but I felt great during all the workouts, so I’ll take it.

Passing my NASM exam

You probably already saw my post about it, but I passed my NASM personal trainer exam last week and am so darn happy to have it complete, so it had to be a favorite. Woohoo!

Suggested reading

Best links from around the web

• Blogging: Oh my gosh, I was so honored to be on Jen’s list of favorite bloggers, because she is amazing and there are amazing ladies on here. Yay!
• Diets: This is an easy way to see what all of the labels mean. And no, you don’t need to adhere to any of them. I sure don’t. 
• Fitness: Move over HIIT, there’s a new type of super hard training in town and it’s called SMIT. And no, you don’t have to do it. It sounds rough and is really only for athletes.
• Sugar: Is there extra sugar hiding in your ingredient labels? This article tells you how some food brands are trying to trick us.

A Lady Goes West Favorite archives

• Fitness industry: Wondering why I got my NASM CPT? Check out … “My experience with the NASM CPT Guided Study Program and passing the NASM exam.”
• Workouts: Are you home-bound for your sweat sessions? No problem. Check out … “How to get the motivation to work out at home.”
• Snacks: Feeling snack-y? These balls are so easy to make and quite delicious. Check out … “Chocolate cashew no-bake protein balls.“

Greetings from San Diego, favorites and weekly workouts on A Lady Goes West ... Click To Tweet

Take care, peeps! I’ll talk to you soon!

P.S. Book club readers! Hope you are working your way through “You Are a Badass.” It’s so good, and we’re going to chat about it in the next two weeks, so keep reading!

Questions of the day

How are you?

What’s something good going on in your life right now?

Have you ever been to San Diego?

Who do you need to forgive? 🙂